Syrian refugees | 1.7m Syrian refugees face food crisis as UN funds dry up

World Food Programme forced to suspend food voucher scheme to refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. A funding crisis has forced the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) to suspend food vouchers to more than 1.7m Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced families facing a “disastrous” winter and increasing the risk of further instability in the region. Since the conflict began three years ago, the WFP has been bringing food to millions of people inside the country and hundreds of thousands more in neighbouring states. It has used the voucher scheme, which allows Syrian refugees to buy food in local shops, to inject about $800m (£500m) into the economies of those countries in the region hosting Syrians forced from their homes by the violence. But after finding itself unable to secure the $64m it needs to support Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries in December, the WFP announced on Monday that it was suspending the voucher scheme. Its executive director, Ertharin Cousin, issued a blunt and urgent appeal to donors, warning the suspension would have a devastating effect on the lives of more than one and a half million people. “[It] will endanger the health and safety of these refugees and will potentially cause further tensions, instability and insecurity in the neighbouring host countries,” said Cousin. “The suspension of WFP food assistance will be disastrous for many already suffering families.” She added that Syrian refugees in camps and informal settlements throughout the region were ill-prepared for another difficult winter, especially in Lebanon and Jordan where tents are drenched in mud, hygiene conditions are poor and many children lack shoes and warm clothes. Muhannad Hadi, WFP regional emergency coordinator for the Syria crisis, said the consequences for both Syrian refugees and host nations could be dramatic. “We are very concerned about the negative impact these cuts will have on the refugees as well as the countries which host them,” he said. “These countries have shouldered a heavy burden throughout this crisis.” The WFP and others are having to contend with five simultaneous level-3 emergencies, the UN’s most serious crisis designation, in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Central African Republic and those west African countries caught up in the Ebola outbreak. Last month, another funding shortfall compelled the WFP to halve rations to half a million refugees, mainly from Somalia and South Sudan, who are living in the Dadaab and Kakuma camps in remote areas in northern Kenya.